PR bluff.
I find the Renaissance Technologies story more compelling and worthy than a press release drafted by the VCs funding/cheering Sentient (Kleiner Perkins, Tata, Horizon, etc.)
Silicon Valley Hedge Fund Takes on Wall Street with AI Trader
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Re: Silicon Valley Hedge Fund Takes on Wall Street with AI Trader
#12Re: Silicon Valley Hedge Fund Takes on Wall Street with AI Trader
#13I just checked out glassdoor, and it seems like they don't know what their product should be since top execs don't want to agree on anything.
> We have too many executives for a company this size - most don't add much value except for fighting with each other and politicizing issues. The CEO lives in HongKong and remotely manages this crew of distrusting, non-supportive and close-minded execs. The HR function is practically a joke. You don't ask questions, challenge their decisions or speak up - they'll threaten to fire you if you did. They have not been able to productize their technology, their trading business has not picked up and their sales pipeline is pretty dry for the other businesses. They have laid off a large number of people recently and financial trouble seems to be brewing - lot of marketing smoke in here!
> Focus on one product and give it more time.
> Productize, productize, productize.
Re: Silicon Valley Hedge Fund Takes on Wall Street with AI Trader
#14Earlier quoted context omitted.
So, genetic algorithms? Good luck with that.
I recall reading an early article about using genetic algorithms for stock trading in the early 90's. This isn't really that new....
One of my school mates did it in mid-90s and he got his first yacht five years later. It worked for a while.
Re: Silicon Valley Hedge Fund Takes on Wall Street with AI Trader
#15Taking on Wall Street by participating in Wall Street?
I somehow doubt how 'disruptive' this will be.
Re: Silicon Valley Hedge Fund Takes on Wall Street with AI Trader
#16There's this thing called data snooping bias, I hope these GA folks recognize that.
As trading goes, past performance does not equate future performance.
Re: Silicon Valley Hedge Fund Takes on Wall Street with AI Trader
#17This is the most interesting bit for me: >Sentient's system is inspired by evolution. According to patents, Sentient has thousands of machines running simultaneously around the world, algorithmically creating what are essentially trillions of virtual traders that it calls "genes." These genes are tested by giving them hypothetical sums of money to trade in simulated situations created from historical data. The genes…
I believe anyone who has considered applying machine learning tools for identifying trading signals came across the idea of using some kind of optimization algorithm to find the best parameters. Evolutionary algorithms seem like a fair approach because the parameter space is (for lack of a better word) very sparse and anything but continuous (lots of parameter combinations don't make sense / don't work). Using a genetic algorithm - like for example the differential evolution algorithm by Price, Storn and Lampinen - is really the most naive approach. I assume they must have some pretty clever, human made models in the back - because in a very general model the parameter space would be so vast, they would probably never find good parameters. And even if they did, they would have to run thousands of tests to make sure they are not overfitting the data - making this a very slow optimization. Not saying this will or will not work - I'm just thinking out loud here.
Re: Silicon Valley Hedge Fund Takes on Wall Street with AI Trader
#18I just checked out glassdoor, and it seems like they don't know what their product should be since top execs don't want to agree on anything. > We have too many executives for a company this size - most don't add much value except for fighting with each other and politicizing issues. The CEO lives in HongKong and remotely manages this crew of distrusting, non-supportive and close-minded execs. The HR function is prac…
Sounds to me like a shopfront to build up an emotionally weighted patent Portfolio to then beat others around the head with.
Hope it fails
Re: Silicon Valley Hedge Fund Takes on Wall Street with AI Trader
#19I just started reading 0 to 1 and I think according to Peter Thiel this news sums up everything that is wrong with the world in one sentence :)
care to elaborate?
Re: Silicon Valley Hedge Fund Takes on Wall Street with AI Trader
#20Renaissance Technologies, DE Shaw, etc. wall street. Wall street is usually on the forefront on using math, technology, etc. to make trades. Sometimes the models end up causing calamity as well.